Fantasy Football Handcuff Report: Week 17

While many of you are done with the 2018 fantasy football season, some of you still have a Week 17 game to play. The good news is that there are only two teams – the Saints and the Cowboys – who have nothing to play for and will likely hold all their starters out. Everyone else seems to be fair game. The bad news is we don’t know who will play just a limited number of snaps or which teams out of playoff contention will even use their regulars. For this week’s Handcuff Report, we’ll combine the two. We’ll discuss changes in the Handcuff Grid you need to know as well as which teams may hold out some of their starters. Obviously, this is steeped in speculation and based off what we’re hearing from the teams and beat writers, but when have we been able to trust them?

Handcuff Grid Changes:

Denver Broncos – Phillip Lindsay suffered a wrist injury during Monday’s game against the Raiders and after tests were run Tuesday, we learned he suffered ligament damage and will be held out for the season finale. That means it only took 16 weeks for everyone’s favorite best-ball pick, Royce Freeman , to be the lead dog in this backfield. He’ll still probably share the workload with Devontae Booker , but at least we know Freeman should see the majority of carries against the Chargers.

Miami Dolphins – While we may never figure out how or why Kalen Ballage remains behind Kenyan Drake on the Dolphins’ official team depth chart, one thing we do know is that Brandon Bolden will continue to have a role as this season closes out. He punched in another touchdown run last week and will remain in the backfield rotation for the final game against the Bills. Vomitous, we know.

San Francisco 49ers -- The Human Triage, a.k.a. Matt Breida , is officially out for the Week 17 game against the Rams. It seems his re-injuring of the ankle during the Week 16 game against the Bears has finally done him in for the season. OK, yes, if there was ever a Week 18, we’re sure Breida would be questionable and then see 20 carries. But for the sake of the right now, we’ll look to Jeff Wilson as the primary back with support from Matthew Dayes and, possibly, Alfred Morris . It’s a match-up against the Rams though, so we’re not sure of the potential success rate.

Situations to Monitor:

Atlanta Falcons – It looks like Tevin Coleman is dealing with a groin strain. Head coach Dan Quinn says he has “a good chance to play,” but we won’t know officially until a few more days of practice. If he can’t go, Brian Hill will be the guy to own.

Carolina Panthers – The team has been non-committal with regard to Christian McCaffrey playing. He’s been a beast all season and was clearly over-worked, so it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if he sat. Expect the team to make an announcement later in the week. If McCaffrey does sit, Cameron Artis-Payne is expected to shoulder the load.

Dallas Cowboys – They have nothing to play for so don’t expect to see Ezekiel Elliott at all. Rod Smith should handle the full workload with Darius Jackson maybe sliding in for a few touches once the team decides to give Smith a breather.

Houston Texans – Win or lose, the Texans will be in the playoffs, so you may want to expect Lamar Miller to sit and give his ankle issue another full week to heal. That means we’ll see the tandem of Alfred Blue and D’Onta Foreman in the backfield. Blue was banged-up a little during the game so Foreman say the extra work late in the game and got the red zone work as well. He could be an interesting play this week.

Jacksonville Jaguars – They’re not in the playoffs, nor do they particularly care about being spoilers. They showed that two weeks ago when they pulled Leonard Fournette late in the game in favor of Dave Williams. This week, we expect more of the same. Fournette is currently listed as questionable, so look for Williams to play a significant role this week with the rest of the backfield participants filling in where they are needed.

Los Angeles Rams – The final game against the 49ers puts another cake-walk match-up in front of the Rams to close out the season. They had no issue resting Todd Gurley last week and they won’t have an issue with it this week either. Expect C.J. Anderson to get the lion’s share of the carries again with John Kelly filling in as a change-of-pace back.

New Orleans Saints – The Saints are locked into the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and won’t use Alvin Kamara or Mark Ingram . Sean Payton was trying to be coy with the media, but let’s face facts – he’d have to be a complete idiot to risk either one of his top two backs. Expect to see plenty of Dwayne Washington this weekend.